Alonso Will Run Le Mans With Toyota

Welcome to The Grid, R&T's quick roundup of the auto industry and motorsports news you should know this morning.

It's Official

Yesterday, we reported that Fernando Alonso said his chances of running Le Mans with Toyota this year stood at 50/50. It seems the odds were a bit better. This morning, McLaren and Toyota Gazoo Racing announced that Alonso will compete with Toyota's WEC program in races that don't conflict with F1 in the 2018/2019 WEC super season.

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That means that he'll miss the Fuji WEC race this year, but it's likely he'll be able to compete in all three races in 2019 with Toyota. What will Alonso do next? Daytona 500? Rally Monte Carlo? New York Marathon?

Ganassi's 200th

At Daytona on Sunday, Chip Ganassi Racing's Ford GTs won the GTLM class. This latest win was also a pretty major milestone for the team: Its 200th win across all the racing it participates in.

Ganassi's first win came in 1994 with Michael Andretti on his return to IndyCar after a year with McLaren in F1. Ganassi's teams have won the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans. That's quite a feat.

Detroit Auto Show Still Popular

This year's Detroit Auto Show might not have had many exciting reveals, but it proved to be a rather popular event. 809,000 people attended this years public show, an increase of 60,000 compared to 2017. There were also more than 5,000 journalists from 60 countries and 52 vehicle debuts.

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